Taipei tsunami aid pays for e-learning center in Indonesia

The post-tsunami relief effort of Taipei residents and the city government has facilitated the launch of an e-learning center in Aceh, Indonesia after the region was devastated by the Dec. 26, 2004 disaster.

The center was built with NT$37 million (US$1.14 million) donated by civil groups, individuals and Taipei City Government staff.

It will offer free Internet and Chinese language courses to about 2,000 high school students each year.

As participants from Taiwan and Indonesia celebrated the opening of the center together via a digital video conference yesterday, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said he expected the center to open a window of knowledge for local students.

"As a local government, what we can do with limited resources and personnel is help with long-term reconstruction efforts, such as providing information technology education for local people," he said.

Besides sponsoring the establishment of the e-learning center, the city department also cooperated with civil groups in helping 30 Aceh students continue their education in Taiwan last year.

Diana Mayasari, an 18-year-old student who now studies at the Jin Wen Institute of Technology, presented the mayor with a transcript from last semester which showed that she was top of her class.

"The education environment is much better here in Taiwan," said Mayasari, whose family remained in Aceh.

After completing her four-year college education in Taiwan, she and the other 29 students will return to Aceh.

The students said in addition to the learning environment, delicious food and friendly people in Taiwan also made it easy for them to settle.

They were linked to their families in Aceh during the digital video conference.

Aceh Province was devastated by the tsunami tragedy of Dec. 26, 2004, with over 150,000 people being listed as dead or missing in the disaster.

The Taipei City Government was criticized last year for leaving tsunami donations undistributed. Director of the social welfare department Hsueh Cheng-tai (薛承泰) denied the accusation and said that donations sent to the city government came in slowly over several months.

The city government's disaster-donation management committee reviewed the distribution proposals presented by some civil groups, including establishing an e-learning center in Aceh and assisting students in Sumatra.

The decision to use the money to establish the center was made last October.